Japanese Step by Step: An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese (English and Japanese Edition)

Build your knowledge of Japanese one step at a time!

Using a clear, step-by-step approach, Japanese Step by Step teaches you how to construct Japanese sentences from the simplest to the most complex. Innovative features make this method the easiest and most effective way to learn to speak and read formal Japanese--the Japanese spoken by educated adults both socially and professionally.

• Presents a building-block approach based on five sentence patterns.
• Flow charts simplify verb conjugations and derivations.
• Kanji and kana characters vertically aligned with romaji accent symbols.
• Key points compared with English make understanding concepts easier.
• Gives you access to free 20-minute download of Chapter 1, Syllables and Accent.

I wish [this book] had been available when I first started to study Japanese over fifty years ago.
--Sir Hugh Cortazzi, former British Ambassador to Japan

Topics include:
Syllables and Accents; Kana and Kanji; "-Desu"; "-Masu"; Postpositions "-Wa" and "-Ga"; The Uses of V3; The Uses of V2; The Uses of "V2'-Te"; The Uses of "V2'-Ta"; The Uses of "V1-Nai"; Derivative Verbs; Compound Sentences; Complex Sentences

Gene Nishi, a former IBM engineer, is the founder of the Nishi Institute of Language Education for extensive research and practice in Japanese and English education.